Texas School District Backtracks: There Are 'Not Two Sides' to Holocaust

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/carroll-school-district-backtracks-says-there-are-not-two-sides-to-holocaust?ref=home

Texas School District Backtracks: There Are ‘Not Two Sides’ to Holocaust
‘TERRIBLE EVENT’
Corbin Bolies
Breaking News Intern
Updated Oct. 15, 2021 3:14PM ET /
Published Oct. 15, 2021 10:53AM ET
Damir Sencar/AFP via Getty

A Texas school district attempted to walk back a scandal late Thursday after teachers were told in a meeting to present “both sides” of the Holocaust. “During the conversations with teachers during last week’s meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history,” Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter wrote on Facebook. “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.” The meeting, led by the Southlake, Texas, district’s head of curriculum, had urged teachers to conform with Texas House Bill 3979, which requires teachers to balance out “widely debated and currently controversial issues” with a both-sides approach.

“As we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts,” Ledbetter wrote. “As a district we will work to add clarity to our expectations for teachers and once again apologize for any hurt or confusion this has caused.”

[HUAJIAO]

1. Nice try, assholes...

[blm]

2. We're SO sorry this headline looked bad for Texas Republicans and we will

try and walk it back a bit to protect these pro-fascist legislators.

[MyOwnPeace]

18. Now THAT would have been.....

a 'retraction' worth printing!

[Lovie777]

3. Texas is moving towards un-American things . .

[NQAS]

4. Well...

I’d really like to hear from the woman proposing the both sides education about the systematic murder of 11 million people by one of those sides.

Please do go on.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. I'd Like To Hear...

...that she's been dismissed.
She's too stupid to be a school administrator.

[calimary]

15. No shit!

[Jilly_in_VA]

5. Somebody must have showed them

the same pictures I saw when I was 9. The ones of the bodies stacked at Buchenwald. My parents had done their best to hide them from us, but I found the volume of U.S. Camera 1946 in the attic when I was prowling through boxes.

[MyOwnPeace]

21. Interesting.......

I had an uncle who had served in Patton's unit and I remember finding some books that showed those types of 'horror' pics.
But the truth is - I NEVER had anybody explain the horror of the event (WW2) and NEVER had any class in my high school deal with any such issues.

As far as the current 'issue' regarding the school administration - they are doing what they 'have to do' to keep state money that runs their districts. And like every other 'system' there are all types of 'believers' in them. As far as 'educators' go, we'd like to think that they are all so well educated and enlightened that they would see things as we would. Sadly, that is not so.

When school systems are run by a 'political' process, well, you can see how THAT works out!

[Aristus]

6. Another flop-sweaty attempt at "Gracious! Did we do THAT?"

[calimary]

16. And the answer is: YES, YOU DAMN WELL DID DO THAT!!!

And that should be a BIG talking point in the next elections. And the next after that. And even the next election after THAT.


DON'T let 'em forget it. Don't let THE VOTERS forget it, either.

DON'T hesitate to play hardball!

[Red Pest]

7. What else will be exempted from this idiocy?

How about the US Civil War? Was it about slavery or not? The Armenian Genocide - did it occur? The expulsion of Jews from Spain and the subsequent Spanish Inquisition? did those occur? Evolution - does it occur? This list of events and science is huge. What do these idiots in Texas want to consider as needing two sides (or more?) or as accepted fact?

Of course, in their pea-like brains there is only one acceptable answer with regards to who won the presidential election in 2020 - the orange corpulent one (aka the orange pustule).

[Marcuse]

9. Different views of slavery.

[link:https://wyofile.com/lawmaker-suggests-there-were-two-sides-to-history-of-slavery/|

CHEYENNE – A freshman Wyoming legislator suggested Wednesday that there are two sides to the history of American slavery, and that Black Americans are “stuck” in a mentality he called “worse than slavery itself.”

“Slavery was something that shouldn’t have happened in America, but it did. But we’ve created slavery into a place that has created a position of being stuck, in my opinion, for a people group,” Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) told lawmakers Wednesday. “And that’s a sad place to be. And that was probably, in my opinion, worse than the slavery itself, because we have created a place where people cannot get free from because of their past.

Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland)
“So slavery needs to be discussed,” he added. “It needs to be brought forward and the different views, that slavery was not maybe what it has been painted as in this nation, completely.”

[Grokenstein]

22. Hey Jeremy Wonderbread, you know what else had two sides?

yikes

According to Haroldson, the discussion of slavery "traps" Black Americans in a debilitating mindset.

I wonder if he has a similar opinion about southern whites and seditionists obsessing about the Civil War.

[marble falls]

8. Their mouth says one thing and their actions say another. Even to suggest "alternative facts" ...

... so far beyond the pale, it demands a resignation. And a complete review of all the 'alternative facts" being brought out forward in the rest of the curriculum.

[Cozmo]

10. Read this story last night, got so incensed I called Gina Peddy and gave her a piece of my mind

Did you think she listened to me? Naw, me neither but I had to do it.

[BobTheSubgenius]

11. Well done, Southlake, TX!

You've caught 1946 from behind.

[yaesu]

13. the fascists are moving further and further into the Hitler cult, there needs to be more outcry nt

[Farmer-Rick]

14. There are 2 sides

To the massacre of of 22 million people. One is that you shouldn't murder them. The other is Nazis murdered 22 million people.

I'm on the side of not mudering people to help the filthy rich like Nazis leaders.

If I had this school system, I would move. They can't think that a Nazi education is good for anyone.

[calimary]

17. ...unless they're closet Nazi sympathizers.

[nilram]

19. Ask not for whom the Clue Phone rings. It rings for thee.

[Paladin]

20. Thank you, Superintendent Ledbetter.

Now go fuck yourself.

[paleotn]

23. Well, actually there is two sides.....

The other side are murderous, jackbooted fucktards. So, whoever complained to the district office about "balance" is really on the side of murderous, jackbooted fucktards.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. They're just doing damage control after the story blew up on them.

It's still a fascist bill in a fascist state that has teachers terrified to simply teach.

They're trying to dodge some negative PR.

[ShazzieB]

25. I think the real problem is a newly passed law that is highly problematic to say the least.

The whole law can be found here: https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB3979/id/2339637

There is some text in this law pertaining to the teaching of "current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs," as follows:

(1) no teacher shall be compelled by a policy of any state agency, school district, campus, open-enrollment charter school, or school administration to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs;
(2) teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective;

After stating that "no teacher shall be compelled" to discuss such topics in their classrooms, the law goes on to say that "teachers who choose" to discuss such topics should "strive to explore" them from "diverse and contending perspectives."

At first, I thought, "Wow, what a dumb law. Don't they know there are some topics that simply can't be taught that way (the Holocaust being a prime example)? But after reading the part that says no teacher is "compelled" to teach about such things, I suspect that the real intent may be to discourage teaching about such topics at all.

I suspect that the Texas state legislature is hoping to scare teachers off from teaching about issues like the Holocaust, slavery, racism, etc. for fear that they'll get in trouble for not teaching from "diverse and contending perspectives" about subjects for which there really is NOT another valid perspective in existence. Otherwise, why include the wording about not being "compelled" to teach about such things at all?

What do you all think? Does my theory make sense? It sounds incredibly sneaky, but we already know what sneaky weasels Texas (Republican) lawmakers are, after the ridiculous abortion bill they foisted on their state. There's not much I'd put past them at this point.

Either way, I think this law is going to end up in court, because as written, it demands that teachers either do the impossible (i.e., teach a "both sides" version of certain topics that literally doesn't exist) or avoid mentioning some pretty important issues at all. Something tells me that is not going to sit well with a lot of teachers (or at least I certainly hope so).

[treestar]

29. the determination of "controversial"

is the issue. The Holocaust is not controversial, that is, there is no controversy over whether it was good or evil. It's not like abortion, which is controversial as there are two sides contending for their view that it is evil or should be a choice.

[edhopper]

26. Texas has already stopped

the teachings of the facts about the Alamo.
So apparently they do teach opposing views to historical facts.

[hatrack]

27. Gee, thanks, Texas School District, for clearing that up for me!

[bluecollar2]

28. Southlake, Texas

As lily white a town as you'll find...google Southlake + evangelicals...